This wine cellar is no ordinary cellar. Created in the 1920's, it was a gift for Queen Mary at Windsor Castle. However, not even that makes it so special. It is the fact that this wine cellar stands only inches high.
 

Yes, it was part of the Queens dolls' house, a gift that took years for an army of fine craftsmen to complete. They followed the plans of Edwin Lutyens, a famous architect who also designed the 80 square miles of New Delhi, India.

The details and luxury of this palatial residence are astounding. The entire mansion was built to scale, an inch to a foot, including such details as the leather bound books in the library. Rudyard Kipling contributed by choosing from among his verses, then writing and illustrating them himself. Max Beerbohm, imagining himself shrunk, wrote --"how good it is to be here!"
 

When the facade of the house is raised, it invites ever closer inspection. You will see that not only is everything to perfect scale but is also in working order. It is fully wired for electricity, has hot and cold running water gushing out of the working taps and an elevator, suspended by fish line cables. The kitchen, with a floor of 2500 wooden blocks, has every convenience. The merest touch of your finger will send the scale to its limit. There is a coal burning oven, a working vacuum cleaner to ease the servants tasks.
 

The nearer you peer, the more perfect the illusion. You might see as Gulliver, "a young girl threading an invisible needle with invisible thread". She may be sitting in the bed chamber of the Princess, where if you peek under the mattress, you will find a discomforting pea, grown to a proper minute size under a microscope!

And what would a mansion be without fine motor cars. No buggies here, for this is a thoroughly modern town residence. A Rolls Royce,  two Daimlers, a Lanchester, a Vauxhall, and a Sunbeam make up this fleet. A favorite is the 6 3/4" long motorcycle, exact to its gasoline engine that runs. An inspection pit, gas pumps and everything required to keep the cars in working order are also provided. Even a fire engine for safety. Should that fail, a comprehensive insurance policy is tucked away in the library.

 

                     


After a busy day, out enjoying London in your Rolls Royce, what else would the tiny King and Queen enjoy more than to relax with guests over a fine meal. The dining room is set with silver service, rather than the simpler white bone china bearing the Queen's cipher crowned.

When the meal is complete, the guests may retire to the drawing room, with its minute portraits of George V and Queen Mary, and be entertained with the "Minute Waltz" played on the fully operational piano. At this time what could be more tempting than a sip of fine sherry brought up from the wine cellar - ahh, to the wine cellar....

The wine cellar is one that anyone would envy. It has a fine collection of spirits and wines, all in inch high bottles. Among them are Margaux 1899, Romanee 1904, Yquem 1874, and an 1854 brandy. How amazing that more than a century later those wines are still coveted by Kings and Queens much more than six inches high.

We may not have the means to build this mansion to full scale but the Queen's wine cellar would suffice. We could fill it with finest vintages of a new era and after an evening with guests of less honor, slip down to the cellar, chose a fine Brandy and think of a Queen with a dolls' house and a tiny cellar.
 

Long live the wine cellar!


Join us next month when we look back over the last 25 years of wine cellar design, amazing cellars, and the intriguing life story of  Paul Wyatt.

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